Scapa Flow Museum shortlisted for Museum of the Year

Scapa Flow Museum has been selected as one of five finalists for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2023, the world’s largest museum prize.

It is one of two Scottish museums to make the shortlist this year, alongside The Burrell Collection, Glasgow.

Recently redeveloped, the Museum tells the story of ‘The Flow’ - one of the world’s biggest natural harbours - as the UK’s naval nerve centre during the World Wars, and the change this brought to the surrounding small island communities of Orkney. It boasts a major collection of wartime artefacts, many of national and international significance.

Art Fund annually shortlists five outstanding museums for the Museum of the Year. The 2023 edition celebrates 10 years of Art Fund Museum of the Year, a prize grounded in 50 years of history championing the UK's 2,500 museums, galleries and heritage sites. The shortlisted museums demonstrate transformational impact, redeveloping their offers with diverse and inspiring stories at their heart and shaping the response to vital issues of today.

The other four shortlisted museums for Museum of the Year 2023 are The Burrell Collection (Glasgow); Leighton House (London); The MAC (Belfast); and Natural History Museum (London).

Scapa Flow Museum is run by Orkney Islands Council – Scotland’s smallest local authority.

Convener of Orkney Islands Council, Graham Bevan, said: “We’re absolutely delighted with this shortlisting. It reflects a determination by many over several years to bring a vision for a world class museum honouring our wartime heritage to reality. Huge congratulations go to everyone who has helped steer this project and played a role in ensuring these stories and artefacts are preserved for generations to come.

“Thanks must also go to all our funders, and to Art Fund for this award which raises the profile of Museums and the important work they do.”

The winning museum will be announced at a ceremony at the British Museum in London on 12 July and will receive £120,000, specially increased for 2023 and beyond to mark 120 years of Art Fund supporting museums. £15,000 will be given to each of the four other finalists – bringing the total prize money to £180,000.

Scapa Flow Museum (Orkney), located on the island of Hoy, tells the stories of Orkney and Orcadians during the world wars 1914-18 and 1939-1945 - from the construction of the huge naval base HMS Proserpine at Lyness on Hoy, and the Royal Navy and military presence in Orkney. Tens of thousands of service men and women descended upon the remote island of Hoy during the wars, whose native population is thought to have been around 1,000 at the time.

Following eight years of determined fundraising and four years of project development, the museum reopened its £4.4 million redevelopment to the public in 2022. The project has been supported by Orkney Islands Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, the Orkney LEADER 2014-2020 programme, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Museums Galleries Scotland, and the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, managed by NatureScot through the Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund* .

Millions of households will have an ancestor who came to Orkney in wartime, and the museum draws out individual stories as well as telling key narratives about the base, significant wartime tragedies in Orkney including the loss of HMS Royal Oak and HMS Hampshire, and the internment, scuttling and salvage of the German High Seas Fleet.

The project team worked locally throughout the restoration period, balancing the needs of a rural island community of 400 with delivering a leading museum with the potential to attract many thousands of tourists. Primary school pupils helped design the layout of the spaces through the Junior Curators programme with National Galleries Scotland.

The 2023 judging panel, chaired by Art Fund director Jenny Waldman, includes: Larry Achiampong, artist; Mary Beard, historian and broadcaster; Abadesi Osunsade, Art Fund Trustee, author and owner of Hustle Crew, and Laura Pye, Director, National Museums Liverpool. The judges will visit each of the finalists to help inform their decision-making, while each museum will make the most of being shortlisted over the summer through events and activities for both new and current visitors.

Speaking on behalf of the judges, Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund said: “Congratulations to Scapa Flow Museum on being shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2023. All five of our finalists are at the top of their game, offering inspirational collections and programmes for their communities and for visitors from across the UK and around the world. From transformational redevelopment to community involvement to addressing the major issues of today, the shortlisted museums may operate at very different scales, but all show astonishing ambition and boundless creativity. Each is a blueprint for future innovation in museums. Visit them if you possibly can.”

#museumoftheyear

More about Art Fund

Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art. It provides millions of pounds every year to help museums to acquire and share works of art across the UK, further the professional development of their curators, and inspire more people to visit and enjoy their public programmes. Art Fund is independently funded, supported by Art Partners, donors, trusts and foundations and the 135,000 members who buy the National Art Pass, who enjoy free or discounted entry to over 850 museums, galleries and historic places, 50% off major exhibitions, and receive Art Quarterly magazine. Art Fund also supports museums through its annual prize, Art Fund Museum of the Year. The winner of Art Fund Museum of the Year 2022 is Horniman Museums & Gardens.

www.artfund.org

More about Scapa Flow Museum

Scapa Flow Museum is run by the local authority in Orkney, Orkney Islands Council, for and on behalf of the local community and war history enthusiasts the world over.

Sited at the former Lyness Royal Naval Base HMS Proserpine, on the island of Hoy off Mainland Orkney, the Museum tells the story of Scapa Flow as the UK’s most important naval anchorage during both world wars - and the impact on the Orkney community.

It provides a safe home for a major collection of wartime artefacts, many of national and international importance including rare naval guns.

Entry is free. In summer (May to September) the Museum is open seven days a week. To find out more about opening times, visit www.orkneymuseums.co.uk

The recent £4.4m refurbishment comprises an extension to the Museum – including modern café facilities - and refurbishment of its historic oil pumphouse, once the lifeblood of the naval base and the vessels in ‘The Flow’.

Around 250 artefacts of all shapes and sizes – many never displayed before in Lyness – are now on display, thanks to the new climate controlled gallery extension.

The Museum was commended at the Highlands and Islands Architectural Awards in 2022, and shortlisted at the Galvanizers Association Galvanizing Awards in 2022.

New attractions as part of the redevelopment include a Virtual Reality display drawing on the expertise of the University of St Andrews School of Computer Science and funded by CUPIDO, a collaboration between Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the University aimed at boosting cultural assets and offerings across the North of Scotland.

Also now available for visitors are renewed audio visuals developed by Aye Pe about the history of Scapa Flow and its modern-day role in Orkney, and a new digital 3D exhibit by 3DVisLab, University of Dundee, which explores the wreck sites, including HMS Royal Oak, which divers cannot visit without special permission from the MoD.

Local pupils from North Walls Community School have been closely involved as ‘Junior Curators’ in the development of offerings for their peers, including the dedicated 'education space' for visiting children, with a hand in details such as labels and voice recordings for artefacts and even instructions for interactive elements of the Museum.

You can find more news from the Museum here.

The Scapa Flow Museum redevelopment which completed in 2022 was part funded by the Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund, part of the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, which finishes in 2023.  NatureScot is also managing another element of the programme – the Green Infrastructure Fund. The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Regional Development Fund and the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit the Scottish Government website or follow @scotgovESIF.

More about the other finalists

The Burrell Collection (Glasgow) in Pollok Country Park houses the 9,000-object collection of Sir William and Constance Burrell. Managed by the charity Glasgow Life, it was officially reopened by King Charles in March October 2022 following a major refurbishment and redisplay, which aimed to celebrate diversity through the museum’s rich and varied collection and create the most accessible, and inclusive and sustainable fine and decorative arts museum in the world. The Collection includes one of the UK’s most significant holdings of Chinese art, some of the world’s finest medieval stained glass and tapestries, and paintings by artists including Rembrandt and Degas. The Burrell Collection welcomed over 500,000 visitors in the year after its reopening and contributed an economic impact of £20m for Glasgow in its first six months. The redisplay was co-curated with a wide range of community groups to ensure the museum showcases diverse and inclusive perspectives, and the Collection Burrell team also partnered with local schools and a range of diverse community groups to amplify their voices. Over 100 pieces of unique digital interpretation from immersive experiences to interactive games give context and meaning to the collection on a scale and to a quality previously unseen with decorative and fine art collections.

Leighton House (London) is the spectacular former studio-home of leading Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton. A public museum since 1900, it reopened in October 2022 following its transformational ‘Hidden Gem to National Treasure’ redevelopment. The sensitive restoration of Leighton House goes beyond the presentation of the home of a Victorian painter to explore broader themes of identity and cultural interaction and celebrate curiosity in the wider world. As part of the project, the museum undertook painstaking research to continue to bring Leighton’s collection back together. It has also worked closely with contemporary artists and makers to create works of art that resonate with the influences of the house and connect with wider audiences. This includes furniture made by displaced Syrian artisans and artwork commissioned from international artists, including a striking mural titled ‘Oneness’. Owned and operated by Kensington and Chelsea Council and supported by the registered charity, The Friends of Leighton House, 14 staff and 80 volunteers deliver a pioneering programme of exhibitions, learning and engagement activities.

The MAC (Belfast) is Northern Ireland’s leading art centre and a key driver in Belfast’s social, physical and economic regeneration. Celebrating 10 years, the MAC exists to make Northern Ireland a better place for all of its citizens by enabling people to imagine, create, enjoy, and participate in outstanding art. The MAC galleries bring major international artists to a local audience, often for the first time in Ireland, whilst also positioning Northern Irish artists within an international context. Alongside its role as a leading arts institution, the MAC places equal emphasis on its civic and cultural responsibility to the people of Northern Ireland, demonstrated through its MACtivate programme. This programme brings together a network of Associate Partners who work with some of the most marginalised people in society, enabling the museum to reach far beyond traditional arts audiences and ensuring that the MAC’s work reflects the interests and concerns of all communities. The MAC has worked with its partners to raise awareness of the housing crisis in Northern Ireland, commissioned artists to create works that campaign for the well-being of LGBTQIA+ people and advocated on behalf of reproductive rights organisations in Northern Ireland.

The Natural History Museum (London) is both a world-leading science research centre and the most-visited indoor attraction in the UK. The custodian of one of the world’s most important scientific collections comprising over 80 million specimens, the museum has a vision of a future in which both people and the planet thrive and is uniquely positioned to be a powerful champion for balancing humanity’s needs with those of the natural world. The Museum’s 350 scientists are finding solutions to the planetary emergency from biodiversity loss through to the sustainable extraction of natural resources, and the collection is accessed by researchers from all over the world both in person and via over 50 billion digital data downloads to date. The Museum uses its global reach and influence to meet its mission to create advocates for the planet - to empower everyone to make a difference for nature. This includes the ‘Biodiversity Intactness Index’, a measure of a region’s natural biodiversity to inform government and corporate decision-making. The Museum’s influential exhibition ‘Our Broken Planet: How We Got Here and Ways to Fix It’ welcomed over 1.2m visitors with 77% of those asked saying their visit had made them more likely to take action to protect the natural world. The Museum took part in COP27 and COP15, and hosts industry experts, policymakers and young activists including Greta Thunberg who worked with the NHM to produce an event for schools around biodiversity loss.

The 2023 Judging Panel

Larry Achiampong, artist

Larry Achiampong is a Jarman Award nominated artist (2021) who works across film, still imagery, aural and visual archives, live performance, objects and sound, to explore ideas surrounding class, gender, cross-cultural and digital identity. He completed a BA in Mixed Media Fine Art at University of Westminster in 2005 and an MA in Sculpture at The Slade School of Fine Art in 2008. In 2020 Achiampong was awarded the Stanley Picker fellowship and in 2019 received the Paul Hamlyn Artist award in recognition for his practice. Achiampong served on the Board of Trustees at Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts, 2017-2022) facilitating art policies in the UK and internationally and also holds a place on the board of trustees for Elephant Trust. Recent solo exhibitions include Wayfinder, Turner Contemporary/MK Gallery/BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Margate, Milton Keynes, Gateshead (2022-2023).

Mary Beard, historian and broadcaster

Mary Beard is one of the world’s best-known Classicists. Cambridge Professor and Fellow of Newnham College, she has written numerous books including the Wolfson Prize-winning Pompeii, the best-selling SPQR and the thought-provoking Women & Power. Mary is a regular media commentator, committed blogger and has made highly-acclaimed television documentaries on the Ancient World and the arts. Mary was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to Classical scholarship and then made a Dame in 2018. Mary is a Fellow of the British Academy and Trustee of the British Museum. Her latest book is Twelve Caesars – Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern.

Abadesi Osunsade, Art Fund Trustee, author and owner of Hustle Crew

Abadesi is the founder and CEO of Hustle Crew, a careers community on a mission to centre the workplace on inclusion, belonging and redistributing power. Abadesi is Co-Host of the Techish podcast, which is listed in the top 20 Tech podcasts on Apple and was recently included in the Financial Times list of Top 100 Influential Leaders in Tech and Tech Nation’s 50 most prominent and influential voices in Tech. Abadesi wrote for the Financial Times before joining London’s Tech scene. In 2016 she published her careers advice book, Dream Big Hustle Hard: A Millennial Woman’s Guide to Success in Tech.

Laura Pye, Director, National Museums Liverpool

Laura Pye joined National Museums Liverpool in August 2018. Born in Liverpool, Laura returned to the city following several years as Head of Culture for Bristol City Council. Prior to moving to Bristol, Laura was interim Heritage and Culture Manager for Warwickshire County Council, covering a similar mix of services to Bristol including Museums and Archives, Arts, Archaeology and Ecology teams. Laura’s early career in museums was focused mainly on museum education, and she has a wealth of experience of working in the North of England, across Liverpool, Yorkshire, and Lancashire.

Jenny Waldman, Art Fund, Director and Chair of Judges

Jenny joined Art Fund as Director in May 2020. Prior to this she was director of 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War Centenary, where she oversaw a programme of commissions of over 100 new works from leading UK and international contemporary artists. Jenny was Creative Producer of the London 2012 Festival and Public Programmes Consultant to Somerset House Trust where she created the ice rink and outdoor events programme. Jenny is a Trustee of Artangel. She was awarded a CBE in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to the arts.

More about Art Fund Museum of the Year

The first ‘Art Fund Museum of the Year’ was awarded in 2013 to the William Morris Gallery in London. Its forerunner was the Prize for Museums and Galleries, administered by the Museum Prize Trust. Art Fund supported this prize between 2008 – 2012, when it was known as the ‘Art Fund Prize’. It was sponsored by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from 2003-2007, when it was known as the ‘Gulbenkian Museum Prize’.

There Is a rich history of prizes for museums, the first running from 1973-2003, called 'The National Heritage Museum of the Year'.

Art Fund Museum of the Year champions what museums do, encourages more people to visit and gets to the heart of what makes a truly outstanding museum. The judges present the prize to the museum or gallery that has shown how their achievements of the preceding year stand out, demonstrated what makes their work innovative, and the impact it has had on audiences.

Winners of Art Fund Museum of the Year 2013 - 2022:

2013 - William Morris Gallery, London
2014 - Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
2015 - Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
2016 - Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London
2017 - The Hepworth, Wakefield
2018 - Tate St Ives
2019 - St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff
2020 - Aberdeen Art Gallery; Gairloch Museum; Science Museum; South London Gallery; and Towner Eastbourne.
2021 – Firstsite, Colchester
2022 – Horniman Museum and Gardens, London

Winners of The Art Fund Prize 2008 – 2012
2008 - The Lightbox, Woking
2009 - Wedgwood Museum, Stoke-on-Trent,
2010 - Ulster Museum, Belfast
2011 - British Museum
2012 - Royal Albert Memorial Museum